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Monday, April 10, 2017

Movie Review: LIFE

Aboard the International Space Station, a team of six astronauts is
preparing for the approach of a probe carrying an extremely valuable
treasure: a cell of alien life. When the scientists try to give life to
the cell, things seem to go smoothly until the alien life form becomes conscious and terrifying events start to unfold.

Not even the fact that I am a huge Sci-Fi and Horror fan, nor my love
for the actors involved could manage to save this generic, bland piece
of directing that left me utterly uninterested and bored. This feature
is an endeavor in terrible character development and embarrassing
storytelling that manages to arouse fascination only in small
components of an otherwise messy picture.

As much as I am against turning hate towards makers of film,
which should always be appreciated as a work of craftsmanship and
effort, I am sadly over Daniel Espinosa. Once is alright, twice try again,
three times I'm out. He has directed some of the worst and most
soulless films of the last years and he has consistently demonstrated
to me an inability to control plot or develop character.

This isn't meant to be a hate letter towards anybody or anything,
rather just an analysis of what bad filmmaking is. Lets starts
with the camera, possibly the worst part of the picture. Espinosa's
camera does not tell a story, it describes a situation. I mean you have
possibly the best cinematographer in the world (for me at least),
Seamus McGarvey, and you manage to screw that up. There is no
philosophy behind the camera. It is just placed around stuff and looks
at the situation from the most generic points of views possible. There
is no style, no over arching theme given to it. Maybe a couple of
repeated patterns, but even then, they are used in different situations
and at that point I did not know what to think anymore. The aimlessness
of the camera is just enough to take away any grit or interest to this
film, it looks like it could have been directed by a computer. There is
no rhythm to the shots, no artistic beauty to be taken from a pantheon
of images that are almost always in the wrong place.

This has many effects on the movie. Character and plot are a fantasy.
Even with only six characters, Espinosa struggles to give any of them
any relevance. Jake Gyllenhal manages to be the only one to emerge with
something, but even then, characters are always and only talking and
explaining the plot to one another. There isn't half of a decent and
genuine conversation, every single scene is exposition, it almost
becomes mind numbing. And this is even worse once you
realize that they are explaining the plot, but you are not
understanding it. I was lost by the feature in at least four points. I
went to see this with a friend and we had to feed each other almost
constantly on what was going on because we didn't understand it. There
is no order or hierarchy in how plot points are presented to you (all
due to the camera, again!). They introduce one plot point early on, then
they take it back one hour later, or they do the exact opposite, or even
worse, there is a button that solves the problem. Story and plot are
literally put all over the place.

One could also go on to explain how many things do not make any kind
of sense: the plot holes are everywhere, the logic in this is
ridiculous and worst of all the mythology established behind the alien
life-from is broken at every further step in its evolution. Then the
score, god the score of this film is insanely bad. It is loud and
overdone, it doesn't let moments breathe, it's just big drums and heavy
music in the moments of tension and high strings in the moments of
emotion, my ears were bleeding by the end.

As much as this is a disaster from any kind of emotional or visual
point of view, I can give it little moments of premise magic, meaning
that there are some scenes, mostly early on because then it goes on a
train-wreck, that engaged me in the questions they were presenting. The alien life form works really well at the start and the scenes of the
sessions with it were definitely the best the movie had to offer.
Moreover, none of the blame can be shifted to the actors, they are all
top tier talents and show it here. None of them give a bad performance, they are just surrounded by generic shots that give no context to their
performance.

Life is a really bad film and I rarely find myself saying that. I
wish all the success in the world to Daniel Espinosa, but after this I
am out of seeing any film of his from now on. Unfortunately, his
particular vision is one that sits really badly with me and always
leaves my mind numbed by the blandness of the visuals and consequently
of the feature itself.

James' Score: 4/10

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